Note: The Lawrence Times runs opinion columns and letters to the Times written by community members with varying perspectives on local issues. These pieces do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Times staff.
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Dear Attorney General Kris Kobach,
34,422. Based on statistics available at the time of writing this letter, 34,422 people have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, including more than 14,500 children. At least 77,867 are injured and more than 8,000 missing.
1,139. Based on statistics available at the time of writing this letter, 1,139 people have been killed in Israel since the Oct. 7 attacks, along with at least 8,730 injured.
35,561 total deaths. And many reputable sources believe this is conservatively low. This is essentially the entire population of a Kansas town such as Leavenworth or Leawood. Or to make a more poignant point, the loss of life in this current conflict has exceeded the total number of students enrolled at the University of Kansas.
The sheer scale of human death in the Israel-Hamas war is staggering. The details of these deaths are horrifying and grotesque. In addition to these numbers, this war has exacerbated issues related to displacement of refugees, amplified issues related to access of resources, destroyed communities and infrastructure, and left many in a constant state of panic and anxiety as they are simply trying to live and eat. Realities such as these are among those that have led our students to protest at KU.
In your May 2 letter titled “RE: Compliance with Kansas Anti-BDS Laws” to KU Chancellor Douglas Girod and the members of the Kansas Board of Regents, you used your office and authority to publicly deride University of Kansas students. Instead of simply relaying whatever the legal status of the students’ claims may be, and instead of of even attempting to consider their concerns about the immense violence in Gaza and Israel since and including the Oct. 7 attacks, you chose to indiscriminately dismiss their concerns, blanketly labelling those in protest as having “twisted thinking” and siding with “anti-Semitic murderers and kidnappers operating outside the bounds of international law” (as an aside, your comment about “operating outside the bounds of international law” is an intriguing one in this context). You further disparage KU students participating in the pro-Palestinian protest as not having “done even a modicum of research,” uncritically dismiss their views as “reprehensible,” and stoop so low as to label them “uninformed, impetulant loudmouths.” In yet another act of belittlement, you ask Girod and the members of the Board of Regents not to even “humor” the protesters and their demands.
Even if we assume that your claim, “No doubt, they are also accompanied by non-student, outside agitators,” which helps frame your letter, was as research-based at the time you wrote your letter as you demand of our student protesters, and even if you expect of our students higher standards toward evidence and integrity than you yourself at times achieve in practice, your “wanton” (if I may borrow your word) dismissal of our students’ concerns marked by needlessly (but intentionally) placed ad hominem attacks is shameful.
The “educational mission of the University is not disrupted,” as you imply it might be. Instead, protests such as these (including their counterprotests/students showing displays of opposition) are evidence that the educational mission of KU is vibrant. As an academic institution, we value dialogue, critical thought, concern for local issues, concern for global issues and a desire to do justice. Rather than simply taking an uncritical stance in defense of the status quo, we expect our students to contemplate their roles as not only members of KU, but members of a global community, and to interrogate the world around them. While I cannot comment on the legality of the students’ request for divestment of financial ties to the Israeli government, I am heartened to see our students’ engagement on the issue of state- and university-level support of foreign powers, and I am heartened to see our students’ deep concern toward current and historical issues in Palestine and Israel.
I know these students, and not in a generic sense. I know many of them individually, and I have worked with them for years. They come from diverse identities and backgrounds. They are eager to learn and they are passionate about justice. They are not simply “siding with bloodthirsty, anti-Semitic terrorists” as you assert. They are thoughtful, bright students who are grappling with the stark realities of our current context. They are thinking and conversing and acting in ways that lead us to consider and constantly move and reevaluate our understanding of crucial questions, such as: What is a “justified response”? Should innocent children be held accountable for the actions of Hamas? And what does it mean for us in the U.S. to have state-level laws in place that not only financially support, but even bar divestment from, foreign states such as Israel?
Thank you for sharing your expert guidance to our university as we work to navigate the legality of these students’ demands. However, we request that you act in a manner befitting of your esteemed office and refrain from disparaging our students.
— Philip T. Duncan (he/him)
Associate Teaching Professor | Department of Linguistics
Affiliate Faculty | Indigenous Studies Program
University of Kansas
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